UPDATE 1-Release of Brazil June jobless rate delayed due to strike

Reuters Staff

2 Min Read

(Adds jobless rate for Sao Paulo, strike details)

RIO DE JANEIRO, July 24 (Reuters) - The release of Brazil’s national unemployment rate was postponed for a second straight month due to a strike at the national statistics agency IBGE, the agency said on Thursday.

The strike affected analysis of data from two metropolitan areas, Salvador and Porto Alegre, IBGE said.

The IBGE did however release data for Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, where it said the jobless rate remained unchanged in June from May, at 5.1 percent, and it also provided unemployment data for three other cities.

The IBGE said it could not provide national jobless figures due to incomplete data stemming from stoppages in some of its regional offices. The national jobless data for June had been tentatively set for release at 9 a.m. (1200 GMT) on Thursday.

The strike is one of a wave of labor disputes that have disrupted everything from bus service to routine police work this year. Last year, another strike at IBGE delayed the release of the June jobless rate.

Brazil’s unemployment rate stood at 4.9 percent in April, near a record low, as an increasing number of teenagers and young adults have opted out of the labor force to dedicate more time to training.

But job creation has slowed sharply after more than three years of meager economic growth, suggesting the unemployment rate could climb higher in coming months, according to some economists. Factories and retailers have already started to lay off workers in some areas, recent government data showed.